THE
PROVINCE OF SIRACUSA

The
province of Syracuse is located in the southern most corner of Italy,
in the geographic-administrative region that during the Arabic period
was called Val di Noto. With its 2108 square Km, comprising 21 municipalities
and in size is one of the smallest Sicilian provinces, but it has
a population density amongst the largest of the island (192 inhabitants
per square Km) and a total population of 405,000 people.
Even though some stretches of the coast have been altered and disfigured
during recent decades by the building of petrochemical industries,
the province of Syracuse still offers the visitor particularly fascinating
tourist routes because of its urban landscape’s exclusivity,
the variety of its cultural heritage, witness of its many rulers
(Greek-Hellenistic, early-Christian, Byzantine, Arabic, Svevian,
Hispanic-Catalan, Baroque) all flourished within a unique Mediterranean
environment.